Photographer Gregory Heisler admits that the process of making a portrait is fraught with unease.

The sitter, Heisler says, doesn't want to face reality. For the photographer, that's all there is.

Greg Heisler has spent a quarter century photographing covers for Time, Life and Sports Illustrated.

In the second half of Tuesday's Up to Date, Steve Kraske talks with the photographer about his new book: Gregory Heilser 50 Portraits, which includes a collection of subjects ranging from O.J. Simpson to Joni Mitchell, Michael Bloomberg to Carl Lewis.

Hear in KC: Gregory Heisler will speak about "The Evocative Portrait" at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art tonight at 7. You'll find more information at ASMP-KC.org

Related Content

In the exhibition Laura McPhee: River of No Return at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, the more than two dozen photographs - each six by eight feet - loom large. McPhee's series explores the grandeur of the West, tensions between ranchers and environmentalists, and human impact on the land - and its often unintended consequences.

It was just last year when Gloria Baker Feinstein and her husband had to move out of their house and into a condo, and get rid of many their possessions.

"It's not stuff," she said. "Everything had a reason. Everything had a memory. Everything felt really dear to me."

The couple had an estate sale, and Feinstein, a photographer, decided to document each item as it left her house. But the endeavor quickly turned into a different project -- one that is now on display in a local gallery.